No Heart, No Love
by WeepingAngelXIII
Summary: Can you love without a heart?  MarLar Pairing.


The twilight was deepening now. Larxene's feet brushed across the grass as she continued to search for him. Marluxia had been wandering around the gardens for the best part of the day. She'd only seen him for about five minutes today before he'd been on babysitting duty for the day, taking that new kid (XIII) out to Twilight Town on a heart collection mission. He had come straight back and disappeared into the gardens. He still hadn't come in. Something had been on his mind and everyone had just seen fit to leave him be. However, Marluxia wasn't exactly Mr. Hey-Here's-What-I'm-Thinking at the best of times. Marluxia was one of the few Nobodies in this Organisation who had never even really attempted to act like he had a heart. Larxene had to respect him for that (even if she would deny it to absolutely everyone, including him); she herself had never had the guts to act like the heartless Nobody she truly was. She wasn't a coward. It just really made her feel (if 'feel' was the appropriate word) better. She had clung to bits of her personality she'd had before the Heartless had ripped the still-beating heart from her chest. She liked her persona too much maybe. Marluxia was different though. He had just moved on. He didn't care about the man he had been. In a way that made Larxene decidedly frustrated and jealous, she supposed. She felt ignored in a way. He could at least pretend to care about her a little bit. Even today he'd just gone away, preferring to be in the company of his flowers than her (although how his plants could grow in the twilight that hung over the World she had no idea). Anyway, when everyone had started clearing off to their rooms and Marluxia still hadn't come back, Larxene had gone looking for him.

The constant twilight that hung over the World That Never Was was becoming deeper. In a world where nothing truly existed there was no night or day, just the blue twilight. But at least it had the decency to become thicker and thinner, hinting at the passage of time. It managed to allow Larxene to keep her sanity anyway. She needed it. In a Castle full of men and one other girl (the girl being dumb and doll-like) there wasn't much else going for her. Larxene looked around. OK. Where could Flower-Boy be? Larxene's bare feet felt the grass brush against them. Then she caught sight of some movement in the shadows just beyond her sight.

"Mar?" she asked, walking towards the movement. "Marluxia?" If it was him, he didn't reply. Larxene walked out into the open area by the wall, looking down over the dark city that hovered below them. Someone was standing there, leaning against the wall. Larxene approached the cloaked figure. "Marluxia?" she asked again. He did not reply in words but he inclined his head slightly to show that he had registered her presence. Larxene walked over and leant against the wall, looking sideways over him. Most of Marluxia's head was hidden by his hood but a trace of his cherry blossom hair was visible against his pale cheek. He still seemed distant so Larxene decided to break the silence. "You've been out here all day. Are you OK?" A ghost of a smile flickered across Marluxia's thin lips.

"Of course I am," he said Larxene leant forward a bit more in an attempt to see more of his face, but the shadows were hiding it.

"Mission that bad?" she asked.

"I wouldn't say so," Marluxia replied, looking further up into the sky. "I found it rather enlightening."

"Hence the avoiding me?"

"Not avoiding you, just thinking," Marluxia snapped back, in a tone that made it so clear that the subject was closed, Larxene decided to backtrack.

"So what has your brilliant mind come up with?" she asked, sounding frankly uninterested. Marluxia reached up and lowered his hood, a few pink rose petals falling from his hair as he did so. Marluxia looked back at the sky again.

"I have seen it," he said.

"What?"

"The Keyblade."

"Oh." That wasn't particularly interesting. She'd seen the Keyblade. She hadn't decided to reflect on it for a day. Well, after all, this was Marluxia. Marluxia sighed.

"Look at that sky, Larxene. What can you see." Puzzled, Larxene looked up too.

"Greyish blue," she said simply. "Dark greyish blue. No stars, no moon, that's it. What am I looking at exactly, Marluxia?"

"That's the point," said Marluxia. "No Kingdom Hearts. For all his promises, Xemnas is nowhere near completing it. All he and those fools who wish to get back their hearts are relying on is the work of two young Nobodies with keyblades. I doubt they even really know what they're doing."

"Yeah, I know. They're useless. They'd be nothing without those giant key/sword things of theirs. They haven't a clue." Marluxia looked thoughtful.

"No," he said. "It's not them I'd blame. Nothing in this Organisation is working the way it should."

"Then what...?" started Larxene, but Marluxia raised a finger to his lips in a signal to silence her.

"Not here," he said. "People could hear. I will talk to you later."

He turned and began to walk back towards the Castle. Larxene ground her teeth. She wasn't giving up that easily.

"No one's here," she called after him, causing Marluxia to stop. "Besides, you can trust _me_." Marluxia gave a mirthless laugh.

"Neither one of us has a heart to be able to trust anyone." Larxene felt annoyed.

"Fine. Then we can talk somewhere else," she said. "I know you're up to something, Marly. Tell me. I won't say." Marluxia turned to face her.

"Somewhere else," he said.

"Tell me," repeated Larxene.

"I..."

"Now!" she snapped, summoning her kunai and pressing them against his neck. Marluxia smiled. Larxene stared at him.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing worth your concern," said Marluxia, raising his hands and guiding her knives away from his throat. "However, my point was that I can't tell you the extent of my plans when there is a risk of any of the others listening in, and I don't want that. I will have to tell you when we're on a joint mission off-world."

"Or," suggested Larxene, being bold, "you could tell me when you can be sure if anyone else is listening." Larxene raised her eyebrows, wondering if he had got the message. Marluxia didn't answer so she continued as he turned back towards the Castle again. "You know the people here are too nosey for their own good. But... you know there's one time where they won't..."

"You don't have to continue," said Marluxia. "I understood what you meant." Larxene groaned inwardly. Seriously, this was worse than taking Roxas out for magic training.

"And?" she asked, after spending a few seconds waiting for Marluxia saying anything else. Marluxia gave her a sideways glance, his blue eyes twinkling.

"I think it would be rude to say 'no'," he said, his mysterious ghost-of-a-smile back on his lips. Larxene grinned openly. She hadn't really expected him to say "yes" really. Larxene watched him, suddenly realising how attractive Marluxia really was when he gave her that half-smile.

Wait a minute...

She wasn't supposed to find him attractive anymore. They couldn't feel, right? That was how it was supposed to work. She'd left her emotions behind. She couldn't love him anymore. She physically couldn't.

Besides it wasn't him she had loved. Lumaria: that was who. That was the man that Arlene had fallen for. But she wasn't Arlene anymore. She was Larxene. She was a Nobody. The heart that made her Arlene was gone. And no heart meant...

Marluxia raised his right hand, palm upwards in front of him, and Larxene watched as a rose head seemingly grew out of nothingness and settled in the gloved palm. Larxene walked up to him, the eyes on the rose. Marluxia looked from the rose to Larxene and then back again.

"Pretty thing, isn't it?" he said, more to the rose than Larxene. "Very pretty." Larxene reached forward also and with her gloveless hands touched one of the outer petals slightly with her middle finger. A tiny spark leapt from her fingers and into the rose, electricity dancing through the petals and giving a bluish glow as the sparks ran through the veins of the flower. Larxene looked back up at Marluxia as he cast his eyes from the rose to her once again.

"Yeah," she said, looking at the rose. "Electrified roses: gorgeous aren't they?" Marluxia smiled and held out the flower.

"Yes," he said. Larxene reached out and touched the rose again, although this time deliberately reaching for the Graceful Assassin's hand. Their eyes met again: Marluxia's deep blue and Larxene's the colour of a turquoise sky. Marluxia closed Larxene's hands around the flower and put both of his hands around hers. Larxene remained lost in his eyes as the warmth of their electrified rose kept her hands heated. Suddenly she forgot everything: how annoyed she was with Xemnas, Saïx, Roxas Xion, and the others, how she felt alienated and alone sometimes, how sometimes Marluxia's heartless attitude got on her nerves. None of it mattered anymore somehow. It was just her and Marluxia now. Larxene sighed and rested her head upon Marluxia's shoulder, his pinkish hair brushing against her cheek. He smelt like early spring flowers. She had no idea how long she was there, but after a while, something made her pull away. Neither of them said anything for a while. It was Larxene who broke the silence eventually.

"So," she said.

"Mmm?"

"Plan?"

"Yes." Marluxia set off back towards the castle again.

"Marly." He turned back.

"Yes?"

"My room or yours?" Marluxia smiled at her (a proper smile this time).

"Mine," he answered, and reached out for Larxene's hand. She took it, thinking. It was almost somewhere inside her, some trace of memory pretending to be emotion had stirred.

Could she feel?

Xemnas had told them time and time again that all their so-called-emotions were an illusion in their current state, but this felt different. It felt real. The two of them walked back towards the castle hand in hand. It almost made Larxene feel emptier than she was, rather than know there was some trace of feeling (although, she had been told enough when she _was_ Arlene, that it would be a miracle if that there was a heart in her chest at all). It was really because now she knew that neither of them knew each other anymore.

No heart. No love.

Larxene shook her head. She didn't care though. Both of them had agreed a long time ago that their hearts had held them back as people. Without hearts they were stronger. That mattered more than emotion really, honestly. Anyway, she didn't need a heart to do some things. Marluxia gave her a fleeting glance. She must have looked thoughtful because he asked her if she was all right. Larxene looked back up at him.

"Sure," she said. "Why wouldn't I be? Now let's go inside, I'm beginning to freeze out here."

She walked off ahead of him, and he watched her go, smiling to himself. In some ways she had not changed. He sighed and followed her inside as the sky grew yet darker, the forbearing of the night.


End file.
